While the government sees it as a good solution, she said, extra work needs to be done when explaining the plans to locals living in the Latvian municipalities on the border. Estonia also held public discussions in affected areas.
Silina said it’s a “complex job” and more finances and resources are needed.
The prime minister said it is a “good opportunity” for Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland to have a “more or less united, coordinated strategy about how we will defend our borders.”
JEF summit “valuable”
Silina spoke to ERR News at the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) Leaders’ Summit in Tallinn on Tuesday. She said the discussions focusing on Ukraine held by the 10 members were “valuable” and “very honest.”
“For Latvia, it is important because all of the countries there have the same goal, and we just can already speak more deeply about strategies, what we can do, how we will do it,” she said.
The prime minister said she was pleased with the agreement to check Russian shadow fleet vessels and that Latvia is ready to contribute.
The JEF leaders summit 2024 in Tallinn. Source: Stenbocki maja
Infrastructure protection
While Latvia has not seen any of its undersea cables damaged – as Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Sweden and Germany have experienced – Silina said hybrid threats and attacks are still common.
Russia is interested in the country’s infrastructure.
“We are sharing our intelligence [with NATO counties], so we are very well prepared and we can warn or we can inform other countries as well,” she said.
Speaking about the situation across Europe and the wave of hybrid attacks, Silina said: “It’s actually taking a lot of resources to investigate what’s happening. We know the patterns and those things are sometimes small, but if you put the chain together you can see the pattern.”
The prime minister said several people in Latvia have been handed criminal charges.
Situation in Georgia is ‘sad’
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuana have raced ahead of the European Union and already sanctioned Georgian security officials for their part in violent protests in Tbilisi.
Silina called the democratic backsliding “sad.”
“It’s Georgia’s society’s decision where they will go. So, but what we can do to help them is not to lose face,” the prime minister said.
Protesters in front of the Parliament Building in Tbilisi, Georgia, with the Georgian Museum of Fine Arts building visible in the background. 2024. Source: Kiur Kaasik
“If they will feel ready or they will need any assistance we can be there, we can politically be there. It is a sad thing to see because we know how hard it is to fight for freedom – we are lucky because we did the job 20 years ago.”
“That’s why we need to work pretty hard not to let it happen in Moldova and in Ukraine or other countries.”
Asked why Latvia has not sanctioned the Georgian prime minister, as Estonia and Lithuania have done, she said the situation is being assessed.
Latvia “grateful” to host NATO’s air policing mission
Latvia hosted the NATO Air Policing Mission this year while Estonia’s Ämari Air Base was refurbished. The two missions in the region are usually hosted in Lithuania and Estonia. Silina said Latvia’s rotation “worked well”.
Asked if she would like the mission to return, she said: “We would like to have air policing present all the time in all three Baltic states, for sure. But we know that the Estonians are ready to take it back. So we were polite, we were, how to say, grateful to help you out.”
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Publish date : 2024-12-20 05:25:00
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